Jointly successful for Scania Group before the Mannheim Regional Court

May 2025 | NEON and POSSER SPIETH WOLFERS & PARTNERS jointly successful for Scania Group before the Mannheim Regional Court: Civil courts are not market regulators.

The judgment is another leading civil court decision on type approval law, this time in the guise of competition law. The attempt to instrumentalize type approval law to enforce claims for injunctive relief and damages under competition law has failed for the time being.

Daimler Truck AG was the first vehicle manufacturer to attempt to clarify approval law issues through the back door via competition law. Daimler had accused the VW subsidiary SCANIA of using test methods to determine air resistance values that were not compatible with EU regulations. The sale and advertising of such vehicles should be therefore prohibited under competition law.

However, Daimler Truck AG had overlooked the fact that the air resistance values used by SCANIA had been approved by the competent authorities. According to the Mannheim Regional Court, such a conclusive certification binds courts and authorities. The use of certified air resistance values could therefore neither constitute a breach of a market conduct regulation within the meaning of Section 3a UWG (Act against unfair competition) nor be assessed as misleading information within the meaning of Section 5 UWG. On the contrary, the air resistance values certified by the approval authority were “to be regarded as objectively correct information within the meaning of the regulation”. We are pleased about this important stage win for SCANIA!